Chhewang, addressing a gathering before filing his nomination at the historic Pologround, praised the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

"BJP is a secular party and it is very necessary to have a strong and effective leader who can put the country on development track," he said.

He also hit back to Congress leader Rigzin Jora, who had blamed few days ago in a public rally that Chhewang has betrayed Congress and?joined BJP.

Chhewang said that today's "Congress is not the same as it was used to be during Indira and Bakula (most popular religious and political figure of Leh) period". He even said that Jora was also interested in joining BJP during Atal ji's (prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpai) period.